Electronic device and communication method

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and communication method. An electronic device used in a first terminal device side is configured for acquiring configuration information of reference signals of a second cell from a first control device of a first cell, measuring the reference signals based on the configuration information and feeding back information indicating the space beams in the second cell interfering with the first terminal device to the first control device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is based on PCT filing PCT/CN2018/072817, filedJan. 16, 2018, which claims the benefit of, and priority to ChinesePatent Application No. 201710033252.8 filed on Jan. 18, 2017. The entiredisclosure of each is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and communicationmethod, and more particularly, to an electronic device and communicationmethod for inter-cell interference coordination.

BACKGROUND

In the process of continuous evolution of 3GPP (3rd GenerationPartnership Project), Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) technology can beused to increase system capacity to meet growing traffic demand.

In a MIMO system, a base station (as a control device and acommunication node) has multiple antennas supporting MIMO technology.Each base station antenna can form a space beam with relatively narrowdirectivity to provide relatively strong power coverage for a specificuser equipment (UE) (also referred to as a terminal device) in a cell toresist relatively large path loss in the high frequency band. However,the space beam with relatively narrow directivity may also generaterelatively strong interference to UEs of other cells. Therefore,inter-cell interference coordination needs to be performed for existingMIMO system.

CoMP (Coordinated Multiple Point) technology can be utilized to performinter-cell interference coordination. For example, by using CoordinatedScheduling/Coordinated Beamforming (CS/CB) in the CoMP technology, aplurality of base stations in a CoMP set can coordinately determine userscheduling/beamforming, thereby enabling inter-cell interferencecoordination.

However, coordinated scheduling/coordinated beamforming, especiallycoordinated beamforming, requires sharing a large amount of controlsignals and/or data among cells within a CoMP set, for example, channelinformation from the aggressor cell to the interfered user equipmentneeds to be exchanged between the aggressor cell and the interferedcell, as the number of antennas increases, this may result in relativelylarge signaling overhead or delay, thus affecting the ability of CoMPtechnology to resolve the inter-cell interference. Therefore, there is aneed for a mechanism to perform inter-cell interference coordinationmore efficiently and quickly.

SUMMARY

A brief summary of the disclosure is set forth below to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should beunderstood that this summary is not an exhaustive overview of thedisclosure. It is not intended to identify a key or critical part of thedisclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Itspurpose is merely to present some of the concepts of the presentdisclosure in a simplified form as a preface to a more detaileddescription presented later.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic deviceused in a first terminal device side of a wireless communication systemis provided. The electronic device can include: a memory for storingcomputer instructions; and processing circuit configured to perform thecomputer instructions stored thereon for: acquiring configurationinformation of reference signals of a second cell from a first controldevice of a first cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the secondcell, the first terminal device is in the first cell; measuring thereference signals of the second cell based on the configurationinformation to determine interferences of space beams corresponded tothe reference signals of the second cell to the first terminal device;and feeding back information indicating the space beams in the secondcell interfering with the first terminal device to the first controldevice, for performing interference coordination between the first celland the second cell.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronicdevice used in a first control device side of a wireless communicationsystem is provided. The electronic device can include: a memory forstoring computer instructions; and a processing circuit configured toperform the computer instructions stored thereon for: acquiringconfiguration information of reference signals of a second cell from asecond control device in the second cell adjacent to a first cellcontrolled by the first control device, for a first terminal device inthe first cell to determine interferences of space beams corresponded tothe reference signals of the second cell to the first terminal devicebased on the configuration information; acquiring information indicatingthe space beams interfering with the first terminal device in the secondcell from the first terminal device; and performing interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell based on theacquired information indicating the space beams interfering with thefirst terminal device.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, anelectronic device used in a second control device side of a wirelesscommunication system is provided. The electronic device can include: amemory for storing computer instructions; and a processing circuitconfigured to perform the computer instructions stored thereon for:notifying a first control device in the first cell adjacent to a secondcell controlled by the second control device of configurationinformation of reference signals of the second cell, for a firstterminal device in the first cell to determine interferences of spacebeams corresponded to the reference signals of the second cell to thefirst terminal device based on the configuration information; acquiringinformation indicating the space beams interfering with the firstterminal device in the second cell from the first control device; andperforming interference coordination between the first cell and thesecond cell based on the acquired information indicating the space beamsinterfering with the first terminal device.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, anelectronic device used in a second terminal device side of a wirelesscommunication system is provided. The electronic device can include: amemory for storing computer instructions; and a processing circuitconfigured to perform the computer instructions stored thereon for:acquiring information indicating forbidden of the space beamsinterfering with a first terminal device in a first cell from a secondcontrol device in a second cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent tothe second cell, and the second terminal device is in the second cell;and not feeding back information indicating space beams to be forbiddento the second control device to make the second control device forbidthose space beams.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, acommunication method for a wireless communication system is provided.The method can include: a first terminal device acquires configurationinformation of reference signals of a second cell from a first controldevice of a first cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the secondcell, the first terminal device is in the first cell; the first terminaldevice measures the reference signals of the second cell based on theconfiguration information to determine interferences of space beamscorresponded to the reference signals of the second cell to the firstterminal device; and the first terminal device feeds back informationindicating the space beams in the second cell interfering with the firstterminal device to the first control device, for performing interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, acommunication method for a wireless communication system is provided.The method can include: a first control device acquires configurationinformation of reference signals of a second cell from a second controldevice in the second cell adjacent to a first cell controlled by thefirst control device, for a first terminal device in the first cell todetermine interferences of space beams corresponded to the referencesignals of the second cell to the first terminal device based on theconfiguration information; the first control device acquires informationindicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device inthe second cell from the first terminal device; and the first controldevice performs interference coordination between the first cell and thesecond cell based on the acquired information indicating the space beamsinterfering with the first terminal device.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, acommunication method for a wireless communication system is provided.The method can include: a second control device notifies a first controldevice in the first cell adjacent to a second cell controlled by thesecond control device of configuration information of reference signalsof the second cell, for a first terminal device in the first cell todetermine interferences of space beams corresponded to the referencesignals of the second cell to the first terminal device based on theconfiguration information; the second control device acquiresinformation indicating the space beams interfering with the firstterminal device from the first control device; and the second controldevice performs interference coordination between the first cell and thesecond cell based on the acquired information indicating the space beamsinterfering with the first terminal device.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, acommunication method for a wireless communication system is provided.The method can include: a second terminal device acquires informationindicating forbidden of the space beams interfering with a firstterminal device in a first cell from a second control device in a secondcell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the second cell, and thesecond terminal device is in the second cell; and the second terminaldevice does not feedback information indicating space beams to beforbidden to the second control device to make the second control deviceforbid those space beams.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, a computerreadable storage medium is provided. The computer readable storagemedium comprises executable instructions which, when executed by aninformation processing apparatus, cause the information processingapparatus to perform the communication method according to the presentdisclosure.

According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure,interference generated by an aggressor cell to a terminal device of aserving cell (interfered cell) can be effectively and quickly reduced.

DRAWINGS

The drawings constituting a part of the specification describeembodiments of the present disclosure and are used together with thedescription to explain the principles of the present disclosure.

The present disclosure can be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating inter-cell interference in awireless communication system;

FIG. 2 is a signaling diagram illustrating inter-cell interferencecoordination, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an electronicdevice used in a first terminal device side of a wireless communicationsystem, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method for a firstterminal device side of a wireless communication system, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams illustrating occupancy ofreference signals on resource blocks, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an electronicdevice for a first control device side of a wireless communicationsystem, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method for a firstcontrol device side of a wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an electronicdevice for a second control device side of a wireless communicationsystem according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method for a secondcontrol device side of a wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an electronicdevice for a second terminal device side of a wireless communicationsystem according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method for a secondterminal device side of a wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a car navigation device according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now bedescribed in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be notedthat the relative arrangement of the components and steps, numericalexpressions and numerical values set forth in the embodiments are notintended to limit the scope of the disclosure, unless otherwisespecified.

In the meantime, it should be understood that the dimensions of thevarious parts shown in the drawings are not drawn in the actual scalerelationship for the convenience of the description.

The following description of the at least one exemplary embodiment is inpractical merely illustrative and is in no way intended to be alimitation of the present disclosure and its application or use.

Techniques, methods and devices known to those of ordinary skill in therelevant art may not be discussed in detail, but the techniques, methodsand devices should be considered as part of the specification, whereappropriate.

In all of the examples shown and discussed herein, any specific valuesare to be construed as illustrative only and not as a limitation.Accordingly, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may havedifferent values.

It should be noted that similar reference numerals and letters indicatesimilar items in the following drawings, and therefore, once an item isdefined in one drawing, it is not required to be further discussed inthe subsequent drawings.

To facilitate a better understanding of the technical solutions inaccordance with the present disclosure, some of the concepts used in thepresent disclosure are briefly described below.

A base station, such as an evolved Node B (eNB), has multiple antennasthat support MIMO technology. The use of MIMO technology enables a basestation to utilize spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing,beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used tosimultaneously transmit different data streams on the same frequency.These data streams can be transmitted to a single UE to increase thedata rate (which can be referred to as SU-MIMO technology) or tomultiple UEs to increase the total system capacity (which can bereferred to as MU-MIMO technology). This is achieved by spatiallyprecoding each data stream (i.e., applying scaling and phase adjustmentof the amplitude) and then transmitting each spatially precoded streamon the downlink (DL) through multiple transmit antennas. The spatiallyprecoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) with different spatialsignatures, which enables each of the UE(s) to recover one or more datastreams destined for the UE. On the uplink (UL), each UE transmits aspatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station toidentify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

Spatial multiplexing is generally used when channel conditions are good.When channel conditions are less favorable, beamforming may be used tofocus the transmission energy in one or more directions. This may beachieved by spatially precoding the data for transmission throughmultiple antennas. To achieve good coverage at the edges of a cell, asingle stream beamforming transmission may be used in combination withtransmit diversity.

In the detailed description that follows, various aspects of an accessnetwork will be described with reference to a MIMO system supportingorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the DL. OFDM is aspread-spectrum technique that modulates data over a number ofsubcarriers within an OFDM symbol. These subcarriers are spaced apart atprecise frequency. The spacing provides the “orthogonality” that enablesa receiver to recover data from the subcarriers. In the time domain, aguard interval (e.g., cyclic prefix) may be added to each OFDM symbol tocombat inter-OFDM-symbol interference. The UL may use single-carrierfrequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in the form of OFDM signalextended by a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to compensate for highpeak-to-average power ratio (PARR).

Next, the radio protocol architecture for the user plane and the controlplane in LTE (Long Term Evolution) is explained. The radio protocolarchitecture for the UE and the eNB is shown with three layers: Layer 1,Layer 2, and Layer 3. Layer 1 (L1 layer) is the lowest layer andimplements various physical layer signal processing functions. L1 layerwill be referred to herein as the physical layer. Layer 2 (L2 layer) isabove the physical layer and is responsible for the link between the UEand the eNB over the physical layer.

In the user plane, the L2 layer includes a Medium Access Control (MAC)sublayer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) sublayer, and a Packet DataConvergence Protocol (PDCP) sublayer, which are terminated at the eNB onthe network side. The UE may also have several upper layers above the L2layer, including a network layer (e.g., an IP layer) that is terminatedat the PDN gateway on the network side, and an application layer that isterminated at the other end of the connection (e.g., for end UE, server,etc.).

The PDCP sublayer provides multiplexing among different radio bearersand logical channels. The PDCP sublayer also provides header compressionfor upper layer data packets to reduce radio transmission overhead,security by ciphering the data packets, and handover support for UEsbetween eNBs. The RLC sublayer provides segmentation and reassembly ofupper layer data packets, retransmission of lost data packets, andreordering of data packets to compensate for out-of-order reception dueto hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The MAC sublayer providesmultiplexing between logical and transport channels. The MAC sublayer isalso responsible for allocating various radio resources (e.g., resourceblocks) in one cell among the UEs. The MAC sublayer is also responsiblefor HARQ operations.

In the control plane, the radio protocol architecture for the UE and theeNB is substantially the same for the physical layer and the L2 layer,with the exception that there is no header compression function for thecontrol plane. The control plane also includes a Radio Resource Control(RRC) sublayer in Layer 3 (L3 layer). The RRC sublayer is responsiblefor obtaining radio resources (i.e., radio bearers) and for configuringthe lower layers using RRC signalings between the eNB and the UE.

Briefly introduce various signal processing functions of the L1 layer(i.e., physical layer) implemented on the base station side. Thesesignal processing functions include coding and interleaving tofacilitate forward error correction (FEC) at the UE and mapping tosignal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binaryphase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK),M-phase-shifting Keying (M-PSK), M-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation(M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols are then split into parallelstreams. Each stream is then mapped to an OFDM subcarrier, multiplexedwith reference signals (e.g., pilots) in the time and/or frequencydomain, and then combined together using an Inverse Fast FourierTransform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domainOFDM symbol stream. The OFDM stream is spatially precoded to producemultiple spatial streams. Channel estimation may be used to determinethe coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatial processing. Thechannel estimatation may be derived from a reference signal and/orchannel condition feedback transmitted by the UE. Each spatial stream isthen provided to a different antenna via a separate transmitter. Eachtransmitter modulates an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream fortransmission.

At the UE, each receiver receives a signal through its respectiveantenna. Each receiver recovers information modulated onto an RadioFrequency (RF) carrier and provides the information to the varioussignal processing functions of the L1 layer. Spatial processing isperformed on the information at the L1 layer to recover any spatialstreams destined for the UE. If multiple spatial streams are destinedfor the UE, they may be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream. TheOFDM symbol stream is then converted from the time-domain to thefrequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequencydomain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for eachsubcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and thereference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the mostlikely signal constellation points transmitted by the eNB. These softdecisions may be based on channel estimation. The soft decisions arethen decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signalsthat were originally transmitted by the eNB on the physical channel.These data and control signals are then provided to higher layer forprocessing.

Some terms related to the downlink reference signal and channel stateinformation and the like are described below.

Downlink Reference Signal

The downlink reference signal is a predefined signal occupying aspecific Resource Element (RE) in a downlink time-frequency ResourceBlock (RB). In the LTE downlink, the following different types ofreference signals are included:

Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS): generally referring to a commonreference signal that can be used by all UEs in a cell.

Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS): for dedicated users, beingembedded in data.

Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS): used to estimatechannel state information, thereby assisting resource scheduling andprecoding work of the base station.

Channel State Information (CSI)

The channel state information is used to indicate the channel state ofthe channel between the base station and the UE. The channel stateinformation may include a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrixindicator (PMI), and a channel quality indicator (CQI).

The RI is information about the channel rank. The channel rank indicatesthe maximum number of layers that can carry different information in thesame time-frequency resource.

The PMI is used to indicate an index of a specific precoding matrix in acodebook which includes a plurality of precoding matrices and is sharedbetween a base station and a UE.

The CQI indicates the channel quality and may be used to help determinethe corresponding modulation scheme and coding rate.

In addition, a CRI (CSI-RS Resource Indicator) is used to indicate apreferred CSI-RS resource, and the UE measures each CSI-RS resource andfeeds back the recommended space beam in the form of a CRI. The UE mayindicate the best quality CSI-RS beam received by the UE to the basestation, by feeding back CRI.

CSI Process (CSI-Process)

A plurality of CSI processes may be configured for the UE such that theUE performs CSI measurement and reporting for each CSI process.

The following is a brief introduction to full-dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO)technology.

FD-MIMO technology may greatly improve system capacity by using atwo-dimensional antenna array with, for example, up to 64 antenna portsat the eNB. The benefits of using multiple antenna ports at the eNB mayinclude small inter-cell interference and high beamforming gain. The useof a two-dimensional antenna array allows for UE-specific beamforming inboth the horizontal and vertical directions.

In an FD-MIMO system, the number of transmit antennas at an eNB can beincreased by, for example, 8 to 10 times compared to a conventional8-antenna MIMO system. These additional transmit antennas can result ingreater beamforming gain and introduce less interference to neighboringcells.

In conventional MIMO technology with a one-dimensional antenna array,UE-specific beamforming can be performed only in the horizontaldirection. The common vertical downtilt can be applied to multiple UEs.

In the FD-MIMO technique with a two-dimensional antenna array,UE-specific beamforming can be performed in both the horizontaldirection and the vertical direction.

In conventional linear precoding, the eNB requires MIMO channel stateinformation (CSI) for the full channel. For example, conventionalbeamforming/precoding methods rely on the availability of CSI for theentire transmit dimension (e.g., requiring instantaneous/statisticalknowledge of the channel from each eNB transmit antenna to one or moreUE receive antennas).

Such CSI is either fed back by the UE PMI/RI or obtained by utilizingchannel reciprocity. In a TDD (Time Division Duplex) system, CSI isprimarily acquired at the eNB by utilizing bidirectional channelreciprocity. In an FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) system, CSI istypically measured and quantized at the UE and then fed back to the eNBvia a dedicated uplink channel. In general, the size of the codebookused for CSI quantization increases as the number of transmit antennasat the eNB increases.

The PMI/RI report of the UE may be based on pilot-assisted estimation ofthe DL full channel. The pilot (or common reference signal) overhead andDL channel estimation complexity may be proportional to the number ofeNB antennas. Therefore, the complexity of PMI/RI selection may increaseas the number of eNB antennas increases. On the other hand, based on theknown mechanism of coordinated scheduling/coordinated beamforming, theUE needs not only to report the PMI related to the serving cell to theeNB, but also needs to know in advance the codebook of the neighboringcell in which interference may occur and report the PMI of theinterfering cell.

The inter-cell interference in a wireless communication system will bebriefly described below with reference to FIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG.1, a wireless communication system 1000 includes base stations 1002,1004 and terminal devices 1010, 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018. The terminaldevices 1010, 1012, and 1014 are located in the cell 1006, and arecontrolled by the base station 1002. The terminal devices 1016 and 1018are located in the cell 1008 and are controlled by the base station1004. The cell 1006 is adjacent to the cell 1008.

It should be understood that the base stations described in the presentspecification may be implemented as any type of eNBs or other type ofbase stations or the like (refer to “application example regarding basestation” described later), and the base station is sometimes alsoreferred to as a control device hereinafter; the terminal devicesdescribed in the specification of the present disclosure can beimplemented as mobile terminals or in-vehicle terminals or the like (see“application example regarding terminal device” described later), andthe terminal device is sometimes also referred to as a UE hereinafter.

In the wireless communication system 1000, the base stations 1002, 1004can simultaneously schedule a plurality of terminal devices on the sametime-frequency resource block to implement space division multiplexingof modulation symbol streams of multiple terminal devices on the sametime-frequency resource. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, terminaldevices 1010, 1012, and 1014 in cell 1006 may be scheduled together onthe same time-frequency resource and different space beams (asillustrated by three beams 1020, 1022, and 1024 transmitted by basestation 1002 of FIG. 1), and terminal devices 1016 and 1018 in the cell1008 may be scheduled together on the same time-frequency resource anddifferent space beams (as illustrated by the two beams 1026 and 1028transmitted by the base station 1004 of FIG. 1). In addition, asillustrated in FIG. 1, the space beam 1024 of the cell 1006 can providerelatively strong power coverage to the terminal device 1014 located atthe edge of the cell 1006, but the terminal device 1014 is also subjectto relatively strong interference from the space beam 1026 of the cell1008, and thus inter-cell interference coordination is required toreduce the interference generated by the space beam of the cell 1008 tothe terminal device 1014 located at the edge of the cell 1006.

In the following, the cell 1006 in which the terminal device 1014 islocated is also referred to as a serving cell, and the base station 1002is referred to as a serving base station. The cell 1008 adjacent to thecell 1006 is referred to as an aggressor cell, and the base station 1004is referred to as an aggressor base station.

A signaling diagram of inter-cell interference coordination inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure will bedescribed below with reference to FIG. 2.

The inter-cell interference coordination shown in FIG. 2 can be applied,for example, to the wireless communication system 1000 shown in FIG. 1.In addition, the serving base station shown in FIG. 2 may correspond to,for example, the base station 1002 shown in FIG. 1, and the UE of theserving cell shown in FIG. 2 may correspond, for example, to one or moreof the terminal devices 1010, 1012, and 1014 shown in FIG. 1. Theaggressor base stations shown in FIG. 2 may correspond, for example, tothe base station 1004 shown in FIG. 1, and the UE in the aggressor cellshown in FIG. 2 may correspond, for example, to one or more of theterminal device 1016 and 1018 shown in FIG. 1.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to performinter-cell interference coordination, the UE of the serving cellmeasures the reference signals of the aggressor cell transmitted byspace beams to determine inferences of the space beams from theaggressor cell to the UE of the serving cell. Steps S2000 to S2004 shownin FIG. 2 illustrate an exemplary implementation manner of measuringreference signals of an aggressor cell by a UE of a serving cell, whichwill be specifically described below.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, in step S2000, the aggressor base stationnotifies the serving base station of the configuration information ofreference signals of the aggressor cell.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an aggressor basestation may notify the serving base station of the configurationinformation of reference signals of the aggressor cell transmitted byspace beams through a communication link between base stations. Thecommunication link between base stations may be, for example, an X2interface that is primarily used to carry handover and interferencerelated information between cells. In one example, the aggressor basestation can notify the serving base station of the configurationinformation via a load indication message on the X2 interface. The loadindication process is used to transfer load and interferencecoordination information between base stations of intra-frequencyneighboring cells and between base stations of inter-frequencyneighboring cells.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an aggressor basestation notifies a serving base station of the configuration informationin the case of receiving a request from the serving base station.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, reference signalsof an aggressor cell may be dedicated reference signals. According toanother embodiment of the present disclosure, reference signals of anaggressor cell may be implemented using a beamformed CSI-RS (e.g., ClassB CSI in the current LTE standard, hereinafter also referred to asBF-CSI-RS).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationinformation of a reference signal of an aggressor cell may includeinformation indicating the location of a resource element (RE) carryingthe reference signal in a resource block (RB). In one embodiment, in acase that a reference signal of an aggressor cell is a BF-CSI-RS, theconfiguration information of the reference signal of the aggressor cellmay include information indicating the location of each BF-CSI-RScorresponding to each space beam of the aggressor cell in the RB. In oneembodiment, where a reference signal of an aggressor cell is aBF-CSI-RS, the configuration information of the reference signal of theaggressor cell may include a CRI obtained by measuring the BF-CSI-RS ofan aggressor cell by a UE of the aggressor cell (e.g., measuring thereceived signal power (for example, RSRP) or signal to interference andnoise ratio (SINR) of the BF-CSI-RS.), and the CRI may indicate a spacebeam with a larger power coverage in the aggressor cell, and thus mayindicate a space beam in the aggressor cell that may result in relativelarge interference to the serving cell. In addition, the configurationinformation of reference signals of the aggressor cell may include thecell number of the aggressor cell.

In step S2002, the serving base station notifies the UE of the servingcell of the configuration information of reference signals of theaggressor cell.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case where areference signal of an aggressor cell is a BF-CSI-RS, a serving basestation may configure a plurality of CSI-Processes for a UE of a servingcell by using RRC signaling, wherein at least one CSI-Process is used tonotify the UE of the serving cell of the configuration information ofthe BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell, the format of the CSI measurementreport, resources occupied by the CSI measurement report, triggerconditions and the like, while other CSI-Processes can be used for theCSI report of the serving cell. In the present embodiment, the UE of theserving cell may report the CRI of the aggressor cell to the servingbase station in the specified subframe according to the CSI-Processpre-configured by the serving base station, and the serving base stationmay then determine for which CSI-Process the CSI is according to thesequence number of the subframe of the report received by the servingbase station, thereby can determine the cell number of the aggressorcell corresponding to the CRI according to the configuration of theCSI-Process, that is, the UE reports the cell number of the aggressorcell in an implicit manner.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a serving basestation may provide a UE of a serving cell with configurationinformation of the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell by using a CSI-IM(CSI Interference Measurement) resource in RRC signaling of an RRCsublayer carried on a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Forexample, the configuration of the CSI-IM resource is as shown in Table 1below.

TABLE 1 CSI-IM-ConfigExt::= SEQUENCE {  csi-IM-ConfigId CSI-IM-ConfigId,  resourceConfig INTEGER (0..31),  subframeConfigINTEGER (0..154),  ...,  InterferenceCellId  INTEGER (0..503), InterferenceCRI  INTEGER (0..7),  Or  InterferenceCRI  BIT STRING (SIZE(3)), }

In Table 1, the cell number of the aggressor cell is carried by the“InterferenceCellId” variable, and the CRI obtained by the UE of theaggressor cell measuring the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell is carriedby the “InterferenceCRI” variable. In addition, Table 1 shows a casewhere the number of BF-CSI-RSs of the aggressor cell is 8, andaccordingly, the above CRI may be represented by an integer between 0and 7, or may be represented by a 3-bit bit string. A similar design canbe made when the number of BF-CSI-RSs of the aggressor cell is anothervalue.

It should be noted that Table 1 shows an example of a case where theconfiguration information of the aggressor cell includes the cell numberof the aggressor cell and the CRI obtained by the UE of the aggressorcell measuring the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell, a similarconfiguration can also be made by CSI-IM when the configurationinformation of reference signals of the aggressor cell includes otherinformation.

In step S2004, the UE of the serving cell may measure reference signalsof the aggressor cell based on the obtained configuration information todetermine interferences of space beams corresponded to the referencesignals of the aggressor cell to the UE of the serving cell. Forexample, the UE of the serving cell may measure the received signalpower (e.g., RSRP) or the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR)of reference signals of the aggressor cell according to the obtainedconfiguration information, and determine the aggressor cell and itsinterference beam according to the measurement result.

It should be understood that the foregoing steps S2000-S2004 are onlyone example rather than limitation of implementation of measuringreference signals of an aggressor cell by the UE of the serving cell,and those skilled in the art, under the teachings of the presentdisclosure, can implement other methods for measuring reference signalsof the aggressor cell.

In order to perform interference coordination between the serving celland the aggressor cell, in step S2006, the UE of the serving cell feedsback information indicating the space beams in the aggressor cellinterfering with the UE of the serving cell to the serving base station.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationindicating the interfering space beams may include informationindicating the space beams in the aggressor cell interfering with the UEof the serving cell most. In one embodiment, in the case that thereference signals of the aggressor cell are BF-CSI-RSs, the informationindicating the interfering space beams may include a CSI-RS resourceindicator, i.e., a CRI. In the prior art, CRI is used to indicate apreferred BF-CSI-RS resource when the BF-CSI-RS of the present cell ismeasured by the UE (for example, the CRI obtained by measuring theBF-CSI-RS of an aggressor cell by a UE of the aggressor cell, asdescribed above). In an embodiment of the present disclosure, theBF-CSI-RS of an aggressor cell is measured by a UE of a serving cell,and the corresponding CRI may be used to indicate the space beams in thespace beams corresponding to the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cellinterfering with the UE of the serving cell most. In addition, theinformation indicating the interfering space beams may further includethe cell number of the aggressor cell.

It should be noted that, hereinafter, the CRI, which is obtained bymeasuring the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell by the UE of the servingcell, indicating the space beams in the space beams of the aggressorcell interfering with the UE of the serving cell most, is referred to asinterfering CRI, to distinguish it from the CRI, which is obtained bymeasuring the BF-CSI-RS of the present cell by the UE, indicating theBF-CSI-RS resources preferred in the present cell.

In step S2008, the serving base station notifies the aggressor basestation of the information indicating the interfering space beams.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a serving basestation may notify an aggressor base station of the informationindicating the interfering space beams through a communication link (forexample, an X2 interface) between base stations. In one example, theserving base station may notify the aggressor base station of theinformation indicating the interfering space beams through a loadindication message on the X2 interface. In another example, in a casewhere the reference signal of the aggressor cell is a BF-CSI-RS, theserving base station may provide the CSI report of the UE of the servingcell to the aggressor base station in the X2 signaling, wherein the CSIreport includes the interfering CRI measured by the UE of the servingcell. In some embodiments, the X2 signaling may be reported by theserving base station to the aggressor base station on the basis of arequest of the aggressor base station. For example, the requestcorresponds to a RESOURCE STATUS REQUEST message transmitted on the X2interface, and the CSI report containing the interfering CRI isencapsulated in a RESOURCE STATUS UPDATE message.

In step S2010, the aggressor base station notifies the UE of theaggressor cell of the information indicating the space beams to beforbidden.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationindicating the space beams to be forbidden includes information relatedto the interfering CRI. In the following, the information indicating thespace beams to be forbidden will be described in detail with referenceto Table 2 and Table 3.

In step S2012, the UE of the aggressor cell does not feed backinformation indicating the space beams to be forbidden to the aggressorbase station. Therefore, the aggressor base station no longer configuresthe space beam for the UE of the aggressor cell, and the space beam isforbidden, so that the interference of the space beam to the UE of theserving cell is suppressed.

In one embodiment, the UE of the aggressor cell does not feed back theinterfering CRI to the aggressor base station, so that the aggressorbase station does not configure the BF-CSI-RS corresponding to theinterfering CRI for the UE of the aggressor cell, thereby realizing theforbiddance of the space beam.

The procedure of steps S2008 to S2012 described above is an exemplaryimplementation for performing interference coordination between aserving base station and an aggressor base station, but the presentdisclosure is not limited to the above implementation manner, and otherimplementations for inter-cell interference coordination according tothe present disclosure will be further described below.

As can be seen from the above description with reference to FIG. 2,unlike the coordinated scheduling/coordinated beamforming in the priorart, in the inter-cell interference coordination according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure shown in FIG. 2, since only theconfiguration information of reference signals of an aggressor cell andthe information indicating the interfering space beams are sharedbetween a serving cell and the aggressor cell, without needing to sharea large amount of control signals and/or data, the communication linkbetween the cells has a short delay and a small signaling overhead, andcan effectively and quickly suppress interferences of the space beamsbetween cells.

An electronic device used in a first terminal device side of a wirelesscommunication system and a communication method thereof according to anembodiment of the present disclosure will be described below withreference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The first terminal device may, for example,correspond to the UE of the serving cell illustrated in FIG. 2. Inaddition, the first cell, the second cell, the first control device, thesecond control device, and the second terminal device, which aredescribed below, may correspond to the serving cell, the aggressor cell,the serving base station, the aggressor base station, and the UE of theaggressor cell illustrated in FIG. 2, respectively.

FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration block diagram of an electronic device3000 used in a first terminal device side of a wireless communicationsystem, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In oneembodiment, the electronic device 3000 can include, for example, amemory 3010 and a processing circuit 3020.

The memory 3010 of the electronic device 3000 can store informationgenerated by the processing circuit 3020 as well as programs and dataoperated by of the electronic device 3000. The memory 3010 can be avolatile memory and/or a non-volatile memory. For example, memory 3010can include, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), readonly memory (ROM), and flash memory.

The processing circuit 3020 of the electronic device 3000 providesvarious functions of the electronic device 3000. In an embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the processing circuit 3020 of the electronic device3000 may include a configuration information acquiring unit 3022, areference signal measuring unit 3024, and an interference indicationinformation feedback unit 3026, configured to perform, respectively,steps S4000, S4002, and S4004 in the communication method of theelectronic device used in the first terminal device side of the wirelesscommunication system illustrated in FIG. 4 described later.

The processing circuit 3020 may refer to various implementations ofdigital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed signal (combination ofanalog and digital) circuitry that perform functions in a computingsystem. The processing circuit may include, for example, circuit such asan integrated circuit (IC) and an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a portion or circuit of a separate processor core, anentire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardwaredevice such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or a systemincluding multiple processors.

Additionally, the electronic device 3000 can be implemented at the chiplevel, or can be implemented at the device level by including otherexternal components. In one embodiment, the electronic device 3000 canbe implemented as a first terminal device as a whole, and can alsoinclude one or more antennas.

It should be understood that the various units described above are onlylogical blocks that are divided according to the specific functionswhich they implement, and are not intended to limit the specificimplementation. In actual implementation, each of the above units may beimplemented as a separate physical entity, or may be implemented by asingle entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integratedcircuit, etc.).

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method for a firstterminal device side of a wireless communication system, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. The communication method can beused, for example, for the electronic device 3000 as illustrated in FIG.3.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, in step S4000, the first terminal deviceacquires configuration information of reference signals of a second cellfrom a first control device of a first cell, wherein the first cell isadjacent to the second cell, and the first terminal device is in thefirst cell.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the referencesignals of the second cell and the configuration information of thereference signals of the second cell may respectively correspond to thereference signals of the aggressor cell and the configurationinformation of the reference signals of the aggressor cell describedwith reference to FIG. 2, the description thereof will not be repeatedherein.

In step S4002, the first terminal device measures the reference signalsof the second cell based on the configuration information to determineinterferences of space beams corresponded to the reference signals ofthe second cell to the first terminal device. Step S4002 may correspond,for example, to step S2004 in FIG. 2.

In step S4004, the first terminal device feeds back informationindicating the space beams in the second cell interfering with the firstterminal device to the first control device, for performing interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell. Step S4004 maycorrespond, for example, to step S2006 in FIG. 2.

As has been described above, the reference signals of the second cellaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be BF-CSI-RSs.In one embodiment, the reference signals of the second cell may benon-zero power BF-CSI-RSs, which will be described in detail below withreference to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams illustrating the occupancy ofreference signals on resource blocks, in accordance with one embodimentof the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 5A illustrates theoccupancy of reference signals of a first cell resource blocks, and FIG.5B illustrates the occupancy of reference signals of a second cell onresource blocks. In the resource blocks illustrated in FIG. 5A and FIG.5B, resource elements C0 to C3 correspond to CRS ports 0 to 3,respectively, and resource elements D7 to D14 correspond to DMRS ports 7to 14, respectively, and resource elements shown with horizontalhatching correspond to zero power BF-CSI-RS (ZP BF-CSI-RS) ports, andresource elements shown with vertical hatching correspond to non-zeropower BF-CSI-RS (NZP BF-CSI-RS) ports.

As illustrated in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, in the resource blocks of thefirst cell and the second cell, zero-power BF-CSI-RSs and non-zero-powerBF-CSI-RSs are configured respectively at positions of the same resourceelement, wherein the reference signals of the second cell measured bythe first terminal device is non-zero power BF-CSI-RSs. In this way, inthe resource blocks of the first cell, it is a zero-power BF-CSI-RS thatis configured at the position of a resource element corresponding to thenon-zero-power BF-CSI-RS of the second cell, so that the first terminaldevice can measure interferences generated by space beams of the secondcell without being affected by reference signals of the present cell(i.e., the first cell).

It should be understood that the occupancy of reference signals onresource blocks according to the present disclosure is not limited tothe cases illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B. Those skilled in the art, withthe teachings of the present disclosure, are able to make similardesigns depending on actual application.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, informationindicating the interfering space beams may be fed back to a firstcontrol device through an uplink control channel or an uplink datachannel. In one embodiment, information indicating the interfering spacebeams may be fed back to a first control device through a PhysicalUplink Control Channel (PUCCH). In another embodiment, informationindicating the interfering space beams may be fed back to a firstcontrol device through the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) aspart of the uplink data.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, reference signalsof a second cell are measured in a case where information for indicatingthat interference coordination between the first cell and the secondcell is to be performed is acquired from the first control device. Inone embodiment, the first control device may notify the first terminaldevice whether to perform interference coordination through RRCsignaling. For example, a 1-bit “CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1” variable maybe set in the RRC signaling, when “CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1=1”, itindicates that interference coordination is to be performed, and when“CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1=0”, it indicates not to perform interferencecoordination.

Next, an electronic device used in a first control device side of awireless communication system and a communication method thereofaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be describedwith reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. The first control device may, forexample, correspond to the serving base station shown in FIG. 2. Inaddition, the first cell, the second cell, the first terminal device,the second terminal device, and the second control device, which aredescribed below, may correspond to, for example, the serving cell, theaggressor cell, the UE of the serving cell, the UE of the aggressorcell, and the aggressor base station shown in FIG. 2, respectively.

FIG. 6 illustrates a configuration block diagram of an electronic device6000 used in a first control device side of a wireless communicationsystem, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In oneembodiment, the electronic device 6000 can include, for example, amemory 6010 and a processing circuit 6020.

The memory 6010 of the electronic device 6000 can store informationgenerated by the processing circuit 6020 and programs and data operatedby of the electronic device 6000. The memory 6010 can be a volatilememory and/or a non-volatile memory. For example, memory 6010 caninclude, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), readonly memory (ROM), and flash memory.

The processing circuit 6020 of the electronic device 6000 providesvarious functions of the electronic device 6000. In an embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the processing circuit 6020 of the electronic device6000 may include a configuration information acquiring unit 6022, aninterference indication information acquiring unit 6024, and aninterference coordination unit 6026, configured to perform,respectively, steps S7000, S7002, and S7004 in the communication methodof the electronic device used in the first control device side of thewireless communication system illustrated in FIG. 7 described later.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the processingcircuit 6020 may further include an interference coordinationnotification unit 6028 configured to execute step S7006 in thecommunication method of the electronic device used in the first controldevice side of the wireless communication system illustrated in FIG. 7described later.

The processing circuit 6020 may refer to various implementations ofdigital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed signal (combination ofanalog and digital) circuitry that perform functions in a computingsystem. The processing circuit may include, for example, circuit such asan integrated circuit (IC) and an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a portion or circuit of a separate processor core, anentire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardwaredevice such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or a systemincluding multiple processors.

Additionally, the electronic device 6000 can be implemented at the chiplevel, or can be implemented at the device level by including otherexternal components. For example, the electronic device 6000 can beimplemented as a first control device as a whole, and can also includeone or more antennas.

It should be understood that the various elements described above areonly logical functional blocks that are divided according to thespecific functions which they implement, and are not intended to limitthe specific implementation. In actual implementation, each of the abovefunctional units may be implemented as a separate physical entity, ormay be implemented by a single entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP,etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method for a firstcontrol device side of a wireless communication system, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. This communication method can beused, for example, for the electronic device 6000 as illustrated in FIG.6.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, in step S7000, the first control deviceacquires configuration information of reference signals of a second cellfrom a second control device in the second cell adjacent to a first cellcontrolled by the first control device, for a first terminal device inthe first cell to determine interferences of space beams corresponded tothe reference signals of the second cell to the first terminal devicebased on the configuration information.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first controldevice may acquire configuration information of reference signals of thesecond cell from the second control device through a communication link(for example, an X2 interface) between base stations. In one example,the first control device can acquire the configuration information fromthe second control device via a load indication message on the X2interface.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the referencesignals of the second cell and the configuration information of thereference signals of the second cell may respectively correspond to thereference signals of the aggressor cell and the configurationinformation of the reference signals of the aggressor cell describedwith reference to FIG. 2, the description thereof will not be repeatedherein.

As described above with reference to FIG. 2, in one embodiment, in acase where the reference signal of the second cell is a BF-CSI-RS, thefirst control device may configure a plurality of CSI-Processs for thefirst terminal device, wherein at least one CSI-Process is used tonotify the first terminal device of the configuration information of theBF-CSI-RS of the aggressor cell, the format of the CSI measurementreport, resources occupied by the CSI measurement report, triggerconditions, and the like. In one embodiment, the first control devicemay provide configuration information of the BF-CSI-RS of the aggressorcell to the first terminal device by using the CSI-IM resource in theRRC signaling.

In step S7002, the first control device acquires, information indicatingspace beams in the second cell interfering with the first terminaldevice from the first terminal device.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationindicating the interfering space beams may include informationindicating space beams in the second cell interfering with the firstterminal device most. In one embodiment, in the case that the referencesignal of the second cell is a BF-CSI-RS, the information indicating theinterfering space beams may include the interfering CRI and the cellnumber of the second cell.

In step S7004, the first control device performs interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell based on theacquired information indicating the interfering space beams.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, performinginterference coordination between the first cell and the second cell mayinclude the first control device notifying the second control device ofthe information indicating the interfering space beams, for the secondcontrol device to forbid those space beams. This process may correspond,for example, to step S2008 in FIG. 2.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, performinginterference coordination between the first cell and the second cell mayinclude the first control device performing coordinated scheduling withthe second control device so that the first control device and thesecond control device do not transmit control signals and/or data to thefirst terminal device on the same time-frequency resources or the firstcontrol device and the second control device transmit control signalsand/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequencyresources and different space beams.

In one embodiment, the first control device notifies the second controldevice of information indicating that coordinated scheduling is to beperformed to initiate coordinated scheduling of the first control deviceand the second control device. The information indicating that thecoordinated scheduling is to be performed can be delivered, for example,via the X2 interface. In one embodiment, the information indicating thatthe coordinated scheduling is to be performed may also be implemented bythe information indicating space beams of reference signals of thesecond cell interfering with the first terminal device. In oneembodiment, techniques such as coordinated scheduling/coordinatedbeamforming in CoMP technology may be used to perform coordinatedscheduling of the first control device and the second control device.

In one embodiment, interference coordination between the first cell andthe second cell is performed in the case that the service priority ofthe first control device is higher than the service priority of thesecond control device. In addition, in a case where the service priorityof the first control device is lower than the service priority of thesecond control device, interference coordination between the first celland the second cell is not performed. It should be understood that theservice priority of the control device described herein refers to thepriority of the service provided by the control device to the terminaldevice.

For example, assume that the service priority of the first controldevice is SP₁ and the service priority of the second control device isSP₂. In the case of SP₁≥SP₂, the priority of the service provided by thefirst control device to the first terminal device is higher than thepriority of the service provided by the second control device to thesecond terminal device, and then in the case where the second cellinterferes with the first terminal device of the first cell,interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell isperformed, so that the interference subjected by the first terminaldevice controlled by the first control device is reduced. For example,as illustrated in FIG. 1, in the case of SP₁≥SP₂, the space beam 1026 isforbidden by performing interference coordination between the cell 1006and the cell 1008, at that time the interference from the space beam1026 of the neighboring cell 1008 subjected by the terminal device 1014in the cell 1006 is reduced. Accordingly, however, the power coverage ofthe space beam of the terminal device 1016 in the cell 1008 is alsoreduced. In the case of SP₁<SP₂, the priority of the service provided bythe second control device to the second terminal device is higher thanthe priority of the service provided by the first control device to thefirst terminal device, and then the second control device may ignore theinformation from the first control device for performing interferencecoordination, thus may not perform interference coordination between thefirst cell and the second cell to preferentially ensure the serviceprovided by the second control device to the second terminal device. Forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 1, in the case of SP₁<SP₂, interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell is notperformed, then the space beam 1026 is not forbidden, and the servicemay be provided to the terminal device 1016 in the second cell 1008 bythe space beam 1026 continually, thereby preferentially ensuring theservice provided by the second control device to the second terminaldevice.

In one embodiment, service priorities of the first control device andthe second control device may be preset. In one embodiment, theinformation of the service priority may be communicated between thesecond control device and the second control device by controlling acommunication link (the X2 interface) between the control devices.

By determining whether to perform interference coordination between thefirst cell and the second cell by comparing service priorities of thefirst control device and the second control device, it is possible topreferentially ensure the services provided by the control device withhigher priority to its terminal device.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case wherethe first control device acquires a plurality of pieces of informationindicating the interfering space beams from a plurality of the firstterminal devices over a predetermined number, interference coordinationbetween the first cell and the second cell is performed.

For example, the first control device acquires K interfering CRIs (whereK is more than a predetermined number M) from K first terminal devices,respectively, which indicates that the space beams in the second cellcauses relatively strong interferences to a plurality of first terminaldevices in the first cell, at this time, interference coordinationbetween the first cell and the second cell is performed to reduce oreliminate interferences of the space beams in the second cell to theplurality of first terminal devices. In one embodiment, thepredetermined number M can be preset in the first control device. Inanother embodiment, the predetermined number M may vary depending onchannel conditions.

Refer back to step S7006 in FIG. 7. According to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure, optionally, a communication method for a firstcontrol device side of a wireless communication system may furtherinclude step S7006.

In step S7006, the first control device notifies a first terminal deviceof information for indicating that interference coordination between thefirst cell and the second cell is to be performed.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a first controldevice may notify a first terminal device whether to performinterference coordination through RRC signaling. For example, a 1-bit“CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1” variable may be set in the RRC signaling,when “CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1=1”, it indicates that interferencecoordination is to be performed, and when “CRISubsetRestrictionFlag1=0”,it indicates not to perform interference coordination.

Next, an electronic device used in a second control device side of awireless communication system and a communication method thereofaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be describedwith reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. The second control device may, forexample, correspond to the aggressor base station illustrated in FIG. 2.In addition, the first cell, the second cell, the first terminal device,the second terminal device, and the first control device, which aredescribed below, may correspond to, for example, the serving cell, theaggressor cell, the UE of the serving cell, the UE of the aggressorcell, and the serving base station illustrated in FIG. 2, respectively.

FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration block diagram of an electronic device8000 for a second control device side of a wireless communicationsystem, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In oneembodiment, the electronic device 8000 can include, for example, amemory 8010 and a processing circuit 8020.

The memory 8010 of the electronic device 8000 can store informationgenerated by the processing circuit 8020 and programs and data operatedby the electronic device 8000. The memory 8010 can be a volatile memoryand/or a non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 8010 can include,but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read only memory(ROM), and flash memory.

The processing circuit 8020 of the electronic device 8000 providesvarious functions of the electronic device 8000. In an embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the processing circuit 8020 of the electronic device8000 may include a configuration information notification unit 8022, aninterference indication information acquiring unit 8024, and aninterference coordination unit 8026, configured to perform,respectively, steps S9000, S9002, and S9004 in the communication methodof the electronic device used in the second control device side of thewireless communication system illustrated in FIG. 9 described later.

The processing circuit 8020 may refer to various implementations ofdigital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed signal (combination ofanalog and digital) circuitry that perform functions in a computingsystem. The processing circuit may include, for example, circuit such asan integrated circuit (IC) and an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a portion or circuit of a separate processor core, anentire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardwaredevice such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or systemincluding multiple processors.

Additionally, the electronic device 8000 can be implemented at the chiplevel, or can be implemented at the device level by including otherexternal components. For example, the electronic device 8000 can beimplemented as a second control device as a whole, and can also includeone or more antennas.

It should be understood that the various units described above are onlylogical blocks that are divided according to the specific functionswhich they implement, and are not intended to limit the specificimplementation. In actual implementation, each of the above functionalunits may be implemented as a separate physical entity, or may beimplemented by a single entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), anintegrated circuit, etc.).

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method for a secondcontrol device side of a wireless communication system, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. This communication method can beused, for example, for the electronic device 8000 as illustrated in FIG.8.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, in step S9000, the second control devicenotifies a first control device in the first cell adjacent to a secondcell controlled by the second control device of configurationinformation of reference signals of the second cell, for a firstterminal device in the first cell to determine interferences of spacebeams corresponded to the reference signals of the second cell to thefirst terminal device based on the configuration information. Step S9000may correspond, for example, to step S2000 in FIG. 2.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the referencesignals of the second cell and the configuration information of thereference signals of the second cell may respectively correspond to thereference signals of the aggressor cell and the configurationinformation of the reference signals of the aggressor cell describedwith reference to FIG. 2, the description thereof will not be repeatedherein.

In step S9002, the second control device acquires information indicatingthe space beams interfering with the first terminal device in the secondcell from the first control device.

As already described above, the exchange of information between thefirst control device and the second control device in steps S9000 andS9002 can be achieved by a communication link between base stations(e.g., an X2 interface).

In step S9004, the second control device performs interferencecoordination between the first cell and the second cell based on theacquired information indicating the interfering space beams.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case wherethe reference signal of the second cell is a BF-CSI-RS, the informationindicating the interfering space beams may include the interfering CRIand the cell number of the second cell.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, performinginterference coordination between the first cell and the second cell mayinclude the second control device to forbid at least one of theinterfering space beams.

In one embodiment, the second control device notifies one or more secondterminal devices in the second cell of information indicating spacebeams to be forbidden, so that the one or more second control devices donot feed back information indicating those space beams to the secondcontrol device.

In one embodiment, the second control device notifies the secondterminal device in the second cell with a priority is lower than apredetermined threshold of the information indicating the space beams tobe forbidden, so that the second terminal devices with a priority lowerthan the predetermined threshold do not feed back the informationindicating the space beams to be forbidden to the second control device,thus to forbid those space beams. In addition, the second control devicedoes not notify the second terminal devices whose priority is higherthan the predetermined threshold of the information indicating the spacebeams to be forbidden, and the second terminal devices with highpriority may continue to feed back the information indicating the spacebeams to the second control device, so that it is able to preferentiallyensure good power coverage of these second terminal devices.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, when the priority of the terminaldevice 1016 is below a predetermined threshold, the base station 1004notifies the terminal device 1016 of information indicating the spacebeam 1026 to be forbidden, so as to forbid the space beam 1026, therebyreducing inter-cell interference. When the priority of the terminaldevice 1016 is higher than the predetermined threshold, the base station1004 does not notify the terminal device 1016 of the informationindicating the space beam 1026 to be forbidden, and the terminal device1016 performs normal measurement and feedback of reference signals, sothat the space beam 1026 can be made not forbidden, and the terminaldevice 1016 can continue to be provided with good power coverage.

In one embodiment, the predetermined threshold may be configured inadvance by the second terminal device for the second terminal device.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationindicating space beams to be forbidden may be represented by a bitstring whose number of bits coincides with the number of space beams ofthe second cell.

For example, assume the number of space beams of the second cell is N, afirst bit string of N bits may be employed to denote the informationindicating space beams to be forbidden, and the interfering CRIindicating space beams of the second cell may be denoted, for example,with log₂ N bits. Table 2 below shows the correspondence between thefirst bit string and the interfering CRI in the case of N=8.

TABLE 2 Interfering CRI 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111 First bit00000001 00000010 00000100 00001000 00010000 00100000 01000000 10000000string

According to the correspondence relationship of Table 2, for example,the first bit string “00000010” indicates that there is only oneinterfering CRI “001”, and the first bit string “001001100” indicatesthat there are three interfering CRIs “010”, “011”, and “101”. Asdescribed above, the representation of the first bit string can supportthe superposition of a plurality of interfering CRI representations.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, informationindicating each space beam to be forbidden may be represented by asecond bit string with the number of bits of log₂ N bits. Table 3 belowshows the correspondence relationship between the second bit string andthe corresponding interfering CRI in the case of N=8.

TABLE 3 Interfering CRI 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111 Second bit 000001 010 011 100 101 110 111 string

According to the correspondence of Table 3, when there is only oneinterfering CRI “001”, it can be represented by the second bit string“001”. When there are two interfering CRIs “010” and “011”, it can berepresented by the second bit string “010011”. As it can be seen, in thecase where there are a relatively few of interfering CRIs, therepresentation method (3-bit information or 6-bit information) of thesecond bit string shown in Table 3 may have less signaling overhead thanthe representation method (8-bit information) of the first bit stringshown in Table 2.

Next, a method in which the second control device notifies the secondterminal device of information indicating space beams to be forbiddenaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described.

In one embodiment, the second control device reconfigures the secondterminal devices by including the information indicating the space beamsto be forbidden in the high-level dedicated signaling (such as RRCsignaling of the RRC sublayer) carried on the physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH), to notify the second terminal device of the informationindicating those space beams. This configuration manner is called as asemi-static configuration. The semi-static configuration manner isconfigured through PDSCH, so the rich PDSCH resources can be used tocarry more information, but the layer-by-layer decoding is required, andthe configuration period is long.

For example, the semi-static configuration manner described above can beimplemented by designing the configuration regarding the antenna in theRRC signaling as illustrated in Table 4 below.

TABLE 4 AntennaInfoDedicated ::=   SEQUENCE {  ...  CRISubsetRestrictionCHOICE {  N1TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  N2TxAntenna BIT STRING(SIZE (8)),  N4TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  N8TxAntenna BIT STRING(SIZE (8)),  N12TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  N16TxAntenna BITSTRING (SIZE (8)),  N20TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  N24TxAntennaBIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  N28TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)), N32TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),  } OPTIONAL,  or CRISubsetRestriction CHOICE {  N1TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)), N2TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)),  N4TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)), N8TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)),  N12TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)), N16TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)),  N20TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE(3)),  N24TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)),  N28TxAntenna BIT STRING(SIZE (3)),  N32TxAntenna BIT STRING (SIZE (3)),  } OPTIONAL,  ... }

In Table 4, the information indicating the space beams to be forbidden(for example, information indicating the interfering CRI) is carried bythe “CRISubsetRestriction” variable, N1TxAntenna, N2TxAntenna,N4TxAntenna, N8TxAntenna, N12TxAntenna, N16TxAntenna, N20TxAntenna,N24TxAntenna, N28TxAntenna and N32TxAntenna represent the cases that thenumber of antenna ports is 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32,respectively. The cell may be virtual sectorized through CRI, and oneCRI may correspond to one virtual sector in the cell, and there may be1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 or 32 antenna ports in the virtualsector.

As an example, Table 4 shows the case where the number of space beams isN=8. When the number of antenna ports is 1, 2, 4, . . . , 32, an 8-bitbit string (for example, corresponding to the first bit string shown inTable 2) or a 3-bit bit string (for example, corresponding to the secondbit string shown in Table 3) can be used to represent“CRISubsetRestriction”.

It should be understood that the number of antenna ports in Table 4 ismerely illustrative and not limiting, and a similar design may be madedepending on actual situation when the number of antenna ports isanother value. In addition, a similar design can be made to the“CRISubsetRestriction” variable when the number of space beams N isanother value.

In one embodiment, the second control device reconfigures the secondterminal device by including the information indicating the space beamsto be forbidden in the information (e.g. downlink control information(DCI)) carried on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), tonotify the second terminal device of the information indicating thosespace beams. This configuration manner is called as a dynamicconfiguration. The dynamic configuration is configured through thePDCCH, so the configuration period is short and has strong timeliness,but the resources that can be utilized are limited compared with thesemi-static configuration.

In addition, in the dynamic configuration mode, resources may also beadded to the existing DCI, so that the information indicating spacebeams to be forbidden can be included in the DCI and communicated to thesecond terminal device.

In one embodiment, an improved dynamic configuration manner can beimplemented by combining the semi-static configuration manner with thedynamic configuration manner described above. For example, the secondcontrol device notifies the second terminal device of the informationindicating the space beams to be forbidden by the higher layer dedicatedsignaling (such as RRC signaling of the RRC sublayer) carried on thePDSCH, and notifies the second terminal device of whether the space beamforbidden is to be performed by the control information (e.g. thedownlink control information (DCI)) carried on the PDCCH. For example, a1-bit “CRISubRestrictionFlag2” variable may be set in the DCI toindicate whether the space beam forbidden is to be performed, when“CRISubRestrictionFlag2=1”, it indicates that the space beam forbiddenis to be performed, and when “CRISubRestrictionFlag2=0”, it indicatesnot to perform space beam forbidden.

As one example of the improved dynamic configuration manner describedabove, the second control device transmits RRC signaling includinginformation indicating space beams to be forbidden at time T1. The RRCsignaling is rich in resources and can be used to carry the informationindicating space beams to be forbidden. Subsequently, the DCI including“CRISubRestrictionFlag2=1” is transmitted at time T2, and the DCIincluding “CRISubRestrictionFlag2=0” is transmitted at time T3. Whenreceiving the DCI including “CRISubRestrictionFlag2=1”, the secondterminal device does not feed back to the second control device theinformation indicating the space beams to be forbidden according to thepreviously received RRC signaling including the information indicatingthe space beams to be forbidden, so as to realize the forbidden of thespace beams; upon receiving the DCI including“CRISubRestrictionFlag2=0”, the normal measurement and feedback ofreference signals is restored without forbidden processing. The timeinterval between T2 and T3 can be very short, thus achievingconfiguration flexibility.

In the improved dynamic configuration manner, using the rich resourceson the PDSCH to carry the information occupying a relatively largeamount of resources, indicating space beams to be forbidden, and usingshort configuration periods of the control information on the PDCCH tocarry the information occupying a relatively small amount of resources,indicating whether to perform the space beams forbidden, theconfiguration flexibility can guaranteed while the requirements of theconfiguration resources are met.

In one embodiment, the space beams can be forbidden and unforbidden byMAC layer signaling (MAC Control Element) in conjunction with aforbidden timer.

In one embodiment, the forbidden and unforbidden of each space beam maybe controlled with a third bit string with the number of bits consistentwith the number of space beams of the second cell and a forbidden timercorresponding to each space beam.

For example, assuming that the number of space beams of the second cellis N=8, a third bit string of 8 bits is set in the MAC control element,wherein each bit indicates whether to forbid a corresponding one spacebeam of the eight space beams. For example, the 3rd, 6th, and 7th bitsin the third bit string “01001100” being “1” means that the 3rd, 6th,and 7th space beams are forbidden, while the remaining bits being “0”mean that the remaining space beams are not forbidden. In addition, thesecond control device configures, for the second terminal device, aforbidden timer corresponding to each of the 8 space beams of the secondcell by, for example, RRC signaling. For example, while the 3rd, 6th,and 7th space beams are forbidden such that the second terminal devicedoes not feed back information indicating the three space beams, theforbidden timers corresponding to the 3rd, 6th, and 7th space beams inthe second terminal device start timing, during the period when thetiming of the forbidden timer is reached, the 3rd, 6th, and 7th spacebeams are unforbidden, at that time, the second terminal device resumesnormal space beam feedback without performing forbidden processing.

By the way of combining the above MAC layer signaling with the forbiddentimer, it is possible to forbid a specific space beam only during aspecific timing period. Since the situation of strong inter-cellinterference usually does not last for a long time, the forbidden timerstarted internally in the second control device can act on balancinginter-cell interference. In addition, it is automatically unforbiddenwhen reaching the timing period of the forbidden timer, thereby nospecial signaling is required to inform the unforbidden.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, performinginterference coordination between the first cell and the second cell mayinclude the second control device performing coordinated scheduling withthe first control device so that the first control device and the secondcontrol device do not transmit control signals and/or data to the firstterminal device on the same time-frequency resources or the firstcontrol device and the second control device transmit control signalsand/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequencyresources and different space beams.

In one embodiment, the second control device acquires informationindicating that coordinated scheduling is to be performed from the firstdevice to initiate coordinated scheduling with the first control device.The information indicating that the coordinated scheduling is to beperformed can be delivered, for example, via an X2 interface. In oneembodiment, the information indicating that the coordinated schedulingis to be performed may also be implemented by the information indicatingspace beams of reference signals of the second cell interfering with thefirst terminal device. In one embodiment, techniques such as coordinatedscheduling/coordinated beamforming in CoMP technology may be used toperform coordinated scheduling of the first control device and thesecond control device.

In one embodiment, interference coordination between the first cell andthe second cell is performed in the case that the service priority ofthe first control device is higher than the service priority of thesecond control device. In addition, in a case where the service priorityof the first control device is lower than the service priority of thesecond control device, interference coordination between the first celland the second cell is not performed.

A specific example of determining whether to perform interferencecoordination by comparing the service priority of the first controldevice with the service priority of the second control device has beendescribed above with reference to the communication method for the firstcontrol device side of the wireless communication system according to anembodiment of the present disclosure, the description thereof will notbe repeated herein.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case thatthe second control device acquires a plurality pieces of informationover a predetermined number indicating the space beams interfering withthe first terminal device from the first control device, theinterference coordination between the first cell and the second cell isperformed.

For example, if the second control device acquires K interfering CRIsfrom the first control device (where K is above a predetermined numberM), it indicates that the space beams in the second cell causesrelatively strong interferences to a plurality of first terminal devicesin the first cell, at this time, interference coordination between thefirst cell and the second cell is performed to reduce or eliminateinterferences of the space beams in the second cell to the plurality offirst terminal devices. In one embodiment, the predetermined number Mcan be preset in the first control device. In another embodiment, thepredetermined number M may vary depending on channel conditions.

Next, an electronic device used in a second terminal device side for awireless communication system and a communication method thereofaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be describedwith reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. The second terminal device may, forexample, correspond to the UE of the aggressor cell shown in FIG. 2. Inaddition, the first cell, the second cell, the first control device, thesecond control device, and the first terminal device, which aredescribed below, may correspond to the serving cell, the aggressor cell,the serving base station, the aggressor base station and the UE of theserving cell shown in FIG. 2, respectively.

FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration block diagram of an electronicdevice 10000 for a second terminal device side of a wirelesscommunication system, according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, the electronic device 10000 can include,for example, a memory 10010 and a processing circuit 10020.

The memory 10010 of the electronic device 10000 can store informationgenerated by the processing circuit 10020 and programs and data operatedby the electronic device 10000. The memory 10010 can be a volatilememory and/or a non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 10010 caninclude, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), readonly memory (ROM), and flash memory.

The processing circuit 10020 of the electronic device 10000 providesvarious functions of the electronic device 10000. In an embodiment ofthe present disclosure, the processing circuit 10020 of the electronicdevice 10000 may include a forbidden indication information acquiringunit 10022 and an information feedback unit 10024, configured toperform, respectively, steps S11000 and S11002 in the communicationmethod of the electronic device for the second terminal device side ofthe wireless communication system illustrated in FIG. 11 describedlater.

The processing circuit 10020 may refer to various implementations ofdigital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed signal (combination ofanalog and digital) circuitry that perform functions in a computingsystem. The processing circuit may include, for example, circuit such asan integrated circuit (IC) and an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a portion or circuit of a separate processor core, anentire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardwaredevice such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or a systemincluding multiple processors.

Additionally, the electronic device 10000 can be implemented at the chiplevel, or can be implemented at the device level by including otherexternal components. For example, the electronic device 10000 can beimplemented as a second terminal device as a whole, and can also includeone or more antennas.

It should be understood that the various elements described above areonly logical blocks that are divided according to the specific functionsthat they implement, and are not intended to limit the specificimplementation. In actual implementation, each of the above units may beimplemented as a separate physical entity, or may be implemented by asingle entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integratedcircuit, etc.).

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of a communication method for a secondterminal device side of a wireless communication system, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. This communication method can beused, for example, for the electronic device 10000 as illustrated inFIG. 10.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, in step S11000, the second terminal deviceacquires information indicating forbidden of the space beams in a secondcell interfering with a first terminal device in a first cell from asecond control device in the second cell, wherein the first cell isadjacent to the second cell, and the second terminal device is in thesecond cell.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationindicating forbidden of the space beams in the second cell interferingwith a first terminal device in a first cell may be implemented, forexample, by using the first bit string or the second bit string shown inTable 2 or Table 3.

In step S11002, the second terminal device does not feed backinformation indicating space beams to be forbidden to the second controldevice to make the second control device forbid those space beams. StepS11002 may correspond, for example, to step S2012 in FIG. 2.

In one embodiment, the second terminal device measures the referencesignals corresponding to the space beams other than the space beams tobe forbidden, and feeds back the measurement result to the secondcontrol device, so that the information indicating the space beams to beforbidden is not fed back to the second control device.

In one embodiment, the second terminal device measures the referencesignals corresponding to all the space beams, and when the strength ofthe space beam to be forbidden is measured to be the strongest, reportsthe information indicating the space beam with the second strongeststrength, without reporting the information indicating the space beam tobe forbidden with the strongest strength, such that the informationindicating the space beam to be forbidden is not fed back to the secondcontrol device.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case thatthe priority of the second terminal device is lower than a predeterminedthreshold, the information indicating space beams to be forbidden is notfed back to the second control device. In addition, in a case that thepriority of the second terminal device is higher than a predeterminedthreshold, the second terminal device may ignore the acquiredinformation indicating forbidden of space beams, and perform normalmeasurement and feedback of the reference signals, thereby notperforming the forbidden processing. In one embodiment, in a case thatthe priority of the second terminal device is higher than apredetermined threshold, the second terminal device may also reject thesignaling configuration (for example, the semi-static configuration,dynamic configuration, and improved dynamic configuration describedabove) performed by the second control device thereto for forbidding thespace beam, thereby not performing the forbidden processing. Through theabove processing, in a case that the priority of the second terminaldevice is higher, it is possible to preferentially ensure that thesecond terminal device obtains better power coverage.

In one embodiment, the predetermined threshold may be configured inadvance by the second terminal device for the second terminal device.

The above embodiment mainly performs spatial precoding of a baseband fora CSI reference signal based on the architecture of the current LTE-Acommunication system and is described with multiple antennatransmissions. With the application of millimeter wave communicationsystem and the development of device technology, the beamforming methodof radio frequency can be used in place of the above-mentioned basebandspatial precoding, so that the emission energy of reference signals usedfor measuring space beam interferences in the present disclosure isfocused on one or more directions. The measurement and reporting areperformed by the receiving end device based on the above embodiment,while sharing and coordination are performed between the controldevices. In a communication system that supports beamforming of radiofrequency, the signaling between base stations used in the foregoingembodiments is implemented as Xn signaling, and the base station isimplemented as a next-generation communication node B such as gNodeBdeployed with a large scale antenna, and reference signals for measuringspace beam interferences are still implemented as a CSI-RS or otherspecially designed reference signals. In a more specific example, thegNodeB transmits a radio frequency beamformed reference signals indifferent directions by adjusting the phase and amplitude of phaseshifters of the multiple antennas connected to at least one radiofrequency link (RF Chain) for measurement by the receiving end device.

Application examples according to the present disclosure will bedescribed below.

The technology of the present disclosure can be applied to variousproducts.

For example, the base station may be realized as any type of evolvedNode B (eNB), such as a macro eNB and a small eNB, or a next generationcommunication node B such as a gNodeB. The small eNB may be an eNBcovering a cell smaller than the macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a microeNB, and a home (femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station can berealized as any other types of base stations, such as a NodeB and a basetransceiver station (BTS). The base station may include: a main body(that is also referred to as a base station device) configured tocontrol wireless communication; and one or more remote radio heads(RRHs) disposed in a different place from the main body. Additionally,various types of terminals to be discussed later may also operate as abase station by temporarily or semi-persistently executing a basestation function.

For example, the terminal device may be realized as a mobile terminal(such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC,a portable game terminal, a portable/encrypted dongle type mobilerouter, and a digital camera apparatus) or an in-vehicle terminal (suchas a car navigation device). The terminal device can also be realized asa terminal (that is also referred to as a machine type communication(MTC) terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.Furthermore, the terminal device may be a wireless communication module(such as an integrated circuit module including a single die) mounted oneach of the above terminals.

Application Examples of Base Station First Application Example

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The eNB 800 includes one or more antennas 810and a base station device 820. The base station device 820 and eachantenna 810 may be connected to each other via an RF cable.

Each of the antennas 810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple input multipleoutput (MIMO) antenna), and is used for the base station device 820 totransmit and receive radio signals. The eNB 800 may include the multipleantennas 810, as illustrated in FIG. 12. For example, the multipleantennas 810 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by theeNB 800. Although FIG. 12 illustrates the example in which the eNB 800includes the multiple antennas 810, the eNB 800 may also include asingle antenna 810.

The base station device 820 includes a controller 821, a memory 822, anetwork interface 823, and a wireless communication interface 825.

The controller 821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operatesvarious functions of higher layers of the base station device 820. Forexample, the controller 821 generates data packets from data in signalsprocessed by the wireless communication interface 825, and transfers thegenerated packets via the network interface 823. The controller 821 maybundle data from multiple base band processors to generate bundledpacket(s) and transfer the generated bundled packet(s). The controller821 may have logic functions of performing control such as radioresource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admissioncontrol, and scheduling. This control may be performed in conjunctionwith an eNB or a core network node in the vicinity. The memory 822includes RAM and ROM, and stores program that is executed by thecontroller 821, and various types of control data (such as a terminallist, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

The network interface 823 is a communication interface for connectingthe base station device 820 to the core network 824. The controller 821can communicate with a core network node or another eNB via the networkinterface 823. In this case, the eNB 800, and the core network node orother eNBs may be connected to each other through a logical interface(such as S1 interface and X2 interface). The network interface 823 mayalso be a wired communication interface or a wireless communicationinterface for radio backhaul. If the network interface 823 is a wirelesscommunication interface, the network interface 823 may use a higherfrequency band for wireless communication than a frequency band used bythe wireless communication interface 825.

The wireless communication interface 825 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced), and provides radioconnection to terminal(s) positioned in a cell of the eNB 800 via theantenna 810. The wireless communication interface 825 may typicallyinclude, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 826 and an RF circuit827. The BB processor 826 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing of layers (such as L1, Medium AccessControl (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data ConvergenceProtocol (PDCP)). The BB processor 826 may have a part or all of theabove-described logic functions instead of the controller 821. The BBprocessor 826 may be a memory that stores a communication controlprogram, or a module that includes a processor and related circuitconfigured to execute the program. Updating the program may allow thefunctions of the BB processor 826 to be changed. The module may be acard or a blade that is inserted into a slot of the base station device820. Alternatively, the module may also be a chip that is mounted on thecard or the blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 827 may include, forexample, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receivesradio signals via the antenna 810.

The wireless communication interface 825 may include the multiple BBprocessors 826, as illustrated in FIG. 12. For example, the multiple BBprocessors 826 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used bythe eNB 800. The wireless communication interface 825 may include themultiple RF circuits 827, as illustrated in FIG. 12. For example, themultiple RF circuits 827 may be compatible with multiple antennaelements. Although FIG. 12 illustrates the example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 825 includes the multiple BB processors 826 andthe multiple RF circuits 827, the wireless communication interface 825may also include a single BB processor 826 or a single RF circuit 827.

Second Application Example

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The eNB 830 includes one or more antennas840, a base station device 850, and an RRH 860. The RRH 860 and eachantenna 840 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The basestation device 850 and the RRH 860 may be connected to each other via ahigh speed line such as an optic fiber cable.

Each of the antennas 840 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and isused for the RRH 860 to transmit and receive radio signals. The eNB 830may include the multiple antennas 840, as illustrated in FIG. 13. Forexample, the multiple antennas 840 may be compatible with multiplefrequency bands used by the eNB 830. Although FIG. 13 illustrates theexample in which the eNB 830 includes the multiple antennas 840, the eNB830 may also include a single antenna 840.

The base station device 850 includes a controller 851, a memory 852, anetwork interface 853, a wireless communication interface 855, and aconnection interface 857. The controller 851, the memory 852, and thenetwork interface 853 are the same as the controller 821, the memory822, and the network interface 823 described with reference to FIG. 12.

The wireless communication interface 855 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and provideswireless communication to terminal(s) positioned in a sectorcorresponding to the RRH 860 via the RRH 860 and the antenna 840. Thewireless communication interface 855 may typically include, for example,a BB processor 856. The BB processor 856 is the same as the BB processor826 described with reference to FIG. 12, except that the BB processor856 is connected to the RF circuit 864 of the RRH 860 via the connectioninterface 857. The wireless communication interface 855 may include themultiple BB processors 856, as illustrated in FIG. 13. For example, themultiple BB processors 856 may be compatible with multiple frequencybands used by the eNB 830. Although FIG. 13 illustrates the example inwhich the wireless communication interface 855 includes the multiple BBprocessors 856, the wireless communication interface 855 may alsoinclude a single BB processor 856.

The connection interface 857 is an interface for connecting the basestation device 850 (wireless communication interface 855) to the RRH860. The connection interface 857 may also be a communication module forcommunicating in the above-described high speed line that connects thebase station device 850 (wireless communication interface 855) to theRRH 860.

The RRH 860 includes a connection interface 861 and a wirelesscommunication interface 863.

The connection interface 861 is an interface for connecting the RRH 860(wireless communication interface 863) to the base station device 850.The connection interface 861 may also be a communication module forcommunication in the above-described high speed line.

The wireless communication interface 863 transmits and receives radiosignals via the antenna 840. The wireless communication interface 863may typically include, for example, the RF circuit 864. The RF circuit864 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, andtransmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 840. Thewireless communication interface 863 may include multiple RF circuits864, as illustrated in FIG. 13. For example, the multiple RF circuits864 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 13 illustratesthe example in which the wireless communication interface 863 includesthe multiple RF circuits 864, the wireless communication interface 863may also include a single RF circuit 864.

In the eNB 800 and the eNB 830 illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13, the oneor more components included in the processing circuit 6020 describedwith reference to FIG. 6 and the processing circuit 8020 described withreference to FIG. 8 may be realized in the wireless communicationinterface 912. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components mayalso be realized by the controller 821 and the controller 851.

Application Examples Regarding Terminal Device First Application Example

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone 900 to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The smart phone 900 includes a processor 901,a memory 902, a storage 903, an external connection interface 904, ancamera 906, a sensor 907, a microphone 908, an input device 909, adisplay device 910, a speaker 911, a wireless communication interface912, one or more antenna switches 915, one or more antennas 916, a bus917, a battery 918, and an auxiliary controller 919.

The processor 901 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip(SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and another layerof the smart phone 900. The memory 902 includes RAM and ROM, and storesdata and a program that is executed by the processor 901. The storage903 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and ahard disk. The external connection interface 904 is an interface forconnecting an external device such as a memory card and a universalserial bus (USB) device to the smartphone 900.

The camera 906 includes an image sensor such as a charge coupled device(CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), andgenerates captured image(s). The sensor 907 may include a group ofsensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagneticsensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 908 converts soundsthat are input to the smartphone 900 to audio signals. The input device909 includes, for example, a touch sensor configured to detect touchonto a screen of the display device 910, a keypad, a keyboard, a button,or a switch, and receives operation(s) or information input from a user.The display device 910 includes a screen such as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, anddisplays an output image of the smartphone 900. The speaker 911 convertsaudio signals that are output from the smartphone 900 to sounds.

The wireless communication interface 912 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performswireless communication. The wireless communication interface 912 maytypically include, for example, a BB processor 913 and an RF circuit914. The BB processor 913 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing for wireless communication.Meanwhile, the RF circuit 914 may include, for example, a mixer, afilter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals viathe antenna 916. The wireless communication interface 912 may be onechip module that has the BB processor 913 and the RF circuit 914integrated thereon. The wireless communication interface 912 may includethe multiple BB processors 913 and the multiple RF circuits 914, asillustrated in FIG. 14. Although FIG. 14 illustrates the example inwhich the wireless communication interface 912 includes the multiple BBprocessors 913 and the multiple RF circuits 914, the wirelesscommunication interface 912 may also include a single BB processor 913or a single RF circuit 914.

Furthermore, in addition to a cellular communication scheme, thewireless communication interface 912 may support another type ofwireless communication scheme, such as a short-distance wirelesscommunication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wirelesslocal area network (LAN) scheme. In that case, the wirelesscommunication interface 912 may include the BB processor 913 and the RFcircuit 914 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 915 switches connection destinations of theantennas 916 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentwireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communicationinterface 912.

Each of the antennas 916 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna) and isused for the wireless communication interface 912 to transmit andreceive wireless signals. Smart phone 900 may include multiple antennas916, as illustrated in FIG. 14. Although FIG. 14 illustrates the examplein which the smartphone 900 includes the multiple antennas 916, thesmartphone 900 may also include a single antenna 916.

Furthermore, the smart phone 900 may include the antenna 916 for eachwireless communication scheme. In that case, the antenna switches 915may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 900.

The bus 917 connects the processor 901, the memory 902, the storage 903,the external connection interface 904, the camera 906, the sensor 907,the microphone 908, the input device 909, the display device 910, thespeaker 911, the wireless communication interface 912, and the auxiliarycontroller 919 to each other. The battery 918 supplies power to blocksof the smart phone 900 illustrated in FIG. 14 via feeder lines, whichare partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliarycontroller 919 operates a minimum necessary function of the smartphone900, for example, in a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 900 illustrated in FIG. 14, the one or more componentsincluded in the processing circuit 4020 described with reference to FIG.4 and the processing circuit 10020 described with reference to FIG. 10may be realized in the wireless communication interface 912.Alternatively, at least some of these components may also be realized bythe processor 901 or the auxiliary controller 919.

Second Application Example

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a car navigation device 920 to which the technology ofthe present disclosure may be applied. The car navigation device 920includes a processor 921, a memory 922, a global positioning system(GPS) module 924, a sensor 925, a data interface 926, a content player927, a storage medium interface 928, an input device 929, a displaydevice 930, a speaker 931, and a wireless communication interface 933,one or more antenna switches 936, one or more antennas 937, and abattery 938.

The processor 921 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC and controls anavigation function and another function of the car navigation device920. The memory 922 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programthat is executed by the processor 921.

The GPS module 924 uses GPS signals received from a GPS satellite tomeasure a position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of thecar navigation device 920. The sensor 925 may include a group of sensor,such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and a barometric sensor.The data interface 926 is connected to, for example, an in-vehiclenetwork 941 via a terminal that is not shown, and acquires data (such asvehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

The content player 927 reproduces content stored in a storage medium(such as a CD and a DVD) that is inserted into the storage mediuminterface 928. The input device 929 includes, for example, a touchsensor configured to detect touch onto a screen of the display device930, a button, or a switch, and receives operation(s) or informationinput from a user. The display device 930 includes a screen such as aLCD or an OLED display, and displays an image of the navigation functionor content that is reproduced. The speaker 931 outputs sounds of thenavigation function or the content that is reproduced.

The wireless communication interface 933 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performswireless communication. The wireless communication interface 933 maytypically include, for example, a BB processor 934 and an RF circuit935. The BB processor 934 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulating/demodulating, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing for wireless communication.Meanwhile, the RF circuit 935 may include, for example, a mixer, afilter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals viathe antenna 937. The wireless communication interface 933 may also beone chip module having the BB processor 934 and the RF circuit 935integrated thereon. The wireless communication interface 933 may includethe multiple BB processors 934 and the multiple RF circuits 935, asillustrated in FIG. 15. Although FIG. 15 illustrates the example inwhich the wireless communication interface 933 includes the multiple BBprocessors 934 and the multiple RF circuits 935, the wirelesscommunication interface 933 may also include a single BB processor 934or a single RF circuit 935.

Furthermore, in addition to a cellular communication scheme, thewireless communication interface 933 may support another type ofwireless communication scheme, such as a short-distance wirelesscommunication scheme, a near-field communication scheme, and a wirelessLAN scheme. In that case, the wireless communication interface 933 mayinclude the BB processor 934 and the RF circuit 935 for each wirelesscommunication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 936 switches connection destinations of theantennas 937 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentwireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communicationinterface 933.

Each of the antennas 937 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna) and isused for the wireless communication interface 933 to transmit andreceive wireless signals. The car navigation device 920 may include themultiple antennas 937, as illustrated in FIG. 15. Although FIG. 15illustrates the example in which the car navigation device 920 includesthe multiple antennas 937, the car navigation device 920 may alsoinclude a single antenna 937.

Furthermore, the car navigation device 920 may include the antenna 937for each wireless communication scheme. In that case, the antennaswitches 936 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigationdevice 920.

The battery 938 supplies power to blocks of the car navigation device920 illustrated in FIG. 15 via feeders lines that are partially shown asdashed lines in the figure. The battery 938 accumulates power suppliedfrom the vehicle.

In the car navigation device 920 illustrated in FIG. 15, the one or morecomponents included in the processing circuit 4020 described withreference to FIG. 4 and the processing circuit 10020 described withreference to FIG. 10 may be realized in the wireless communicationinterface 912. Alternatively, at least some of these components may alsobe realized by processor 921.

The technology of the present disclosure may also be realized as anin-vehicle system (or a vehicle) 940 including one or more blocks of thecar navigation device 920, the in-vehicle network 941, and a vehiclemodule 942. The vehicle module 942 generates vehicle data such asvehicle speed, engine speed, and failure information, and outputs thegenerated data to the in-vehicle network 941.

It is to be understood that the phrase “embodiment” or a similarexpression in this specification means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one specific embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Therefore, in the specification, the appearance of the terms“in an embodiment of the present disclosure” and the like is notnecessarily referring to the same embodiment.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure isembodied as a system, an apparatus, a method, or a computer readablemedium as a computer program product. Accordingly, the presentdisclosure may be embodied in various forms, such as a complete hardwareembodiment, a complete software embodiment (including firmware, residentsoftware, microcode, etc.), or as an implementation of software andhardware, which will be referred to as “circuit”, “module” or “system”below. Furthermore, the present disclosure may also be embodied in anytangible media form as a computer program product having computer usableprogram code stored thereon.

The related description of the present disclosure is described withreference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of systems,apparatuses, methods, and computer program products according tospecific embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be understoodthat each block of each flowchart and/or block diagram, and anycombination of blocks in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams may beembodied using computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be executed by a machine composed of a general purposecomputer or a processor of a special computer or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, and the instructions are processed by a computeror other programmable data processing apparatus for implementation ofthe functions or operations described in the flowchart(s) and/or blockdiagram(s).

The flowcharts and block diagrams of the architecture, functions, andoperations that may be embodied by the systems, apparatus, methods, andcomputer program products according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure are shown in the drawings. Thus, each block in theflowcharts or block diagrams may represent a module, a segment, or aportion of program code that comprises one or more executableinstructions to implement the specified logical function. Additionally,it should be noted that in some other embodiments, the functionsdescribed in the blocks may not be performed in the order asillustrated. By way of example, two blocks illustrated as connected mayin fact be executed simultaneously, or in some cases, may also beexecuted in the reverse order as illustrated, depending on the functioninvolved. In addition, it should be noted that blocks of each blockdiagram and/or flowchart, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and/or flowcharts may be embodied by means of a system based ondedicated hardware(s), or specific functions or operations may beperformed by means of a combination of dedicated hardware(s) andcomputer instructions.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An electronic device used in a second control device side of a wireless communication system including: a memory for storing computer instructions; and a processing circuit configured to perform the computer instructions stored thereon for: notifying a first control device in the first cell adjacent to a second cell controlled by the second control device of configuration information of reference signals of the second cell, for a first terminal device in the first cell to determine interferences of space beams corresponded to the reference signals of the second cell to the first terminal device based on the configuration information; acquiring information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device in the second cell from the first control device; and performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell based on the acquired information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device, wherein, performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell includes forbidding at least one of the space beams interfering with the first terminal device, and notifying one or more second terminal devices in the second cell of information indicating space beams to be forbidden, so that the one or more second terminal devices do not feedback information indicating those space beams to the second control device, wherein, the second control device notifies the second terminal device in the second cell with a priority lower than a predetermined threshold of the information indicating space beams to be forbidden.
 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the reference signals are beamformed channel state information reference signals CSI-RS, the information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device includes CSI-RS resource indicator and the number of the second cell.
 3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell includes: the second control device performs coordination scheduling with the first control device so that the first control device and the second control device do not transmit control signals and/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequency resources or the first control device and the second control device transmit control signals and/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequency resources and different space beams.
 4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell in the case that the service priority of the first control device is higher than the service priority of the second control device, or in the case that the second control device acquires a plurality pieces of information over a predetermined number indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device interfering reference signals from the first control device.
 5. An electronic device used in a second terminal device side of a wireless communication system including: a memory for storing computer instructions; and a processing circuit configured to perform the computer instructions stored thereon for: acquiring information indicating forbidden of the space beams in a second cell interfering with a first terminal device in a first cell from a second control device in the second cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the second cell, and the second terminal device is in the second cell; and not feeding back information indicating space beams to be forbidden to the second control device to make the second control device forbid those space beams.
 6. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein not feeding back the information indicating space beams to be forbidden to the second control device in the case that the priority of the second terminal device is lower than a predetermined threshold.
 7. An electronic device used in a first control device side of a wireless communication system including: a memory for storing computer instructions; and a processing circuit configured to perform the computer instructions stored thereon for: acquiring configuration information of reference signals of a second cell from a second control device in the second cell adjacent to a first cell controlled by the first control device, for a first terminal device in the first cell to determine interferences of space beams corresponded to the reference signals of the second cell to the first terminal device based on the configuration information; acquiring information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device in the second cell from the first terminal device; and performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell based on the acquired information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device, wherein performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell includes that the first control device notifies the second control device of the information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device, for the second control device to forbid those space beams.
 8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the reference signals are beamformed channel state information reference signals CSI-RS, the information indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device includes CSI-RS resource indicator and the number of the second cell.
 9. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell in the case that the service priority of the first control device is higher than the service priority of the second control device, or in the case that the first control device acquires a plurality pieces of information over a predetermined number indicating the space beams interfering with the first terminal device from a plurality of the first terminal devices over the predetermined number.
 10. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein performing interference coordination between the first cell and the second cell includes: the first control device performs coordination scheduling with the second control device so that the first control device and the second control device do not transmit control signals and/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequency resources or the first control device and the second control device transmit control signals and/or data to the first terminal device on the same time-frequency resources and different space beams.
 11. A communication method for a wireless communication system including: a second terminal device acquires information indicating forbidden of the space beams in a second cell interfering with a first terminal device in a first cell from a second control device in the second cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the second cell, and the second terminal device is in the second cell; and the second terminal device does not feedback information indicating space beams to be forbidden to the second control device to make the second control device forbid those space beams.
 12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions which, when executed by an information processing apparatus, cause the information processing apparatus to perform a communication method, the communication method comprising: acquiring information indicating forbidden of the space beams in a second cell interfering with a first terminal device in a first cell from a second control device in the second cell, wherein the first cell is adjacent to the second cell, and the second terminal device is in the second cell; and not feeding back information indicating space beams to be forbidden to the second control device to make the second control device forbid those space beams. 